Look There

A Lannan Translation Series Selection

“Agi Mishol’s poems feel perfectly weighted. Her mix of honest empathy and care (‘I who am not exempt from anything—’) and elegant wit (‘I read into the darkness quickly / the words I thought of so slowly’) is deeply touching and enlivening. This is a voice and a spirit to welcome and to live with, gratefully.” —Naomi Shihab Nye

Agi Mishol’s poetry, written in the instability of contemporary Israel, is an astounding balancing act between brave utterance and comic revelation, stark reality and pure pleasure. The poet dreams of being married to Stephen Hawking; men, with all their brazen flaws, are loved, even admired; parents are mourned and remembered; the poet herself freezes in the spotlight of her own poetry reading; a suicide bomber disguised as a pregnant woman walks into a Jerusalem bakery.

“Agi Mishol’s poems know how to tell a tale, to sing a song and also dance—all at one and the same time. I love the splendid surprises in them, the subtle and exact sadness, and the mysterious manner by which she makes this sadness overflow with a hidden joy. Agi Mishol is a wonderful poet.” —Amos Oz

“These engaging poems by Agi Mishol are sparked by sensuous appetites, a nimble wit and a firmly grounded moral intelligence. Whether she writes about love or politics, her survivor parents or her own strategies for survival, Mishol confronts painful realities with spirit and imagination. Beautifully translated by Lisa Katz, Look There introduces the reader of English to a significant contemporary poet.”
—Chana Bloch, Translator of Open Closed Open by Yehuda Amichai

 Listen to Agi Mishol read at Westminster College here.